The Twenty Seven: Jack
by daywalker03
Summary: Lieutenant-Commander Michelle Parker-Rodenko shares her own heartbreaking loss of friends to the Decepticons with Jack Darby after hearing of the death of the Sparklings in Foxbear's Dying Embers. A lead-in of sorts for The Twenty Seven.


The Twenty Seven: Jack

A Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

(Author's note: any spoken words surrounded by is link communications for the members of The Twenty Seven that are involved in this story. Any spoken words with are spoken Cybertronian. Any spoken words with asterisks around them are translated from Russian.)

(Author's note 2: This story takes place just after the Foxbear fan fiction Dying Embers and is best read in conjunction with that storyline.)

(Author's note 3: Lyrics for Ballad of the Green Beret by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler and Robin Moore, copyright 1966)

*Merciful Primus; he yet lives?!* I murmured as I read through the file folder that my husband had brought me. The images that were included of the scans taken of Jackson Darby showed the impossible; massive damage that should have been fatal, but apparently had not been.

*Yes, or so Agent Fowler has indicated to me; even the one he calls Ratchet is unable to explain why,* my husband, Colonel Vasili Rodenko of the Russian Secret Operations Service responded; he shifted uncomfortably, as was the case when his duties dealt with extraterrestrial life forms.

*Ratchet is good, but he had only limited dealings with humans to build his knowledge of our biology before they arrived; one lone human isn't enough to do that with,* I reminded him. Of course, as things turned out, that one human did provide an advance understanding of American English, so they didn't have to have problems with communications when they arrived here, but I knew that wouldn't help with the situation before us. *I presume they want me to talk to the young man, so if you'll excuse me...*

*Yes, I suppose that would be best, considering what you went through 5 years ago,* my husband replied, as Tetra and Alana approached.

I looked at the girls; they were, as usual, smiling and giggling about something trivial that was just outside my mental reach. Yet again I marveled at the resemblance they share even though they are of two completely different worlds; Alana is fully human, while Tetra is Cybertronian.

Tetra, I would like for you to accompany me on a mission, I said softly through our bond. *Alana, I will be gone for a few days and would like to have Tetra assist me; it's important to a young man's life that he see things clearly,* I said aloud. The response from both girls was immediate and positive; Tetra stepped away from Alana and subtly shifted her appearance and Alana spoke in reply, *Of course Mamma; I will make sure Father behaves himself while you and Tetra are gone.* I smiled at Alana, *I'm sure Father won't misbehave, but it's nice to hear that you'll take good care of him, as you did while I was away on the space mission.* I looked over at my husband and saw him grin, then looked at Tetra and held out my hand; she walked over to me and took mine in hers as I started toward our base's ground bridge portal. One of the techs saw us and opened a communications channel to the Autobot base. Omega One, this is Omega Two; ready ground bridge for link. Two parties inbound at your acknowledgment, the tech said quietly.

Omega Two, this is Omega One; initiating ground bridge link, the gruff voice of Ratchet, the Autobot medic came over the speaker as the swirling bluish green portal opened. Tetra and I stepped through into the Omega One base and the portal closed behind us. Tetra looked around in surprise as she saw the human members of Team Prime. Guardian, they look too young to be here,she said softly to me as the youngest of the humans came over to greet us.

"Hi, I'm Raf," the young man with thick glasses said to us politely, while the other two young people slowly descended from the raise platform; having lived with the Autobots for 5 years, I knew what the platform was used for and why.

"Hello Raf, my name is Michelle, and this charming person next to me is Tetra. Is either Optimus Prime or Ratchet available?" I asked him, mostly out of politeness. By this time the other two young people had joined us and the girl seemed quite intrigued by Tetra. The other young man said, "they went to the storage area to get some additional human sized furnishings, as your message seems to have surprised them somewhat; my name is Jack and the young lady admiring your companion is Miko." I smiled at Jack as I watched Raf join Miko in looking at Tetra; she had noticed the attention and was unsure of how to respond to it.

Tetra, they really aren't that much different than Alana; just remember that they aren't used to interacting with small Cybertronians like she is, I said to her, while watching Jack to see what his reaction would be. His eyes grew wide, and both Miko and Raf turned to stare at me. "Wait a minute," Jack said, "what language is that?"

"Jackson, she's speaking in the Autobot dialect of Cybertronian," Optimus Prime said as he walked in carrying a small chair in each of his servos; he walked over to the platform and carefully arranged the two new chairs where we could sit and talk without the Autobots having to strain to hear us. Jack looked at Optimus, then looked at me and said, "Cybertronian? Where in the world did she learn it?"

"On Cybertron, where else," I replied lightly, looking up at the one being in the galaxy that I knew I could trust to explain things in a way that would lead into what I had come to talk to Jack about.

Optimus smiled. "Osprey is correct, Jack; she came to us under different circumstances than what you, Miko and Raf did, but she has had the privilege of walking the surface of Cybertron as well. However, that story is not mine to tell, but hers," he said, giving me the opening I had wanted.

I gestured to the couch and said, "feel free to sit while I tell this story," then took a seat in one of the chairs that Optimus had placed; Tetra sat in the other one while the rest of the teens sat on the couch. Jack looked over at me and said, "how long were you there? Raf and I were gone for a few days, and came back with 'changes'."

I looked at the teens; Jack was looking at me with a genuinely curious expression on his face, while Miko and Raf were split between watching me and looking at Tetra. "Five years. Five long years without any human contact, but it certainly wasn't boring," I said slowly. I waited until I felt that had sunk in, then continued, looking pointedly at Jack. "I wish you could have met the companions I had on my journey to Cybertron; I think you would have liked them. Bobby and Geronimo were my wingmen in the Army Special Air Operations unit I was a part of prior to us being assigned to the NASA deep space mission we were on; you may have heard of us, as we took the joint Top Gun trophy three years in a row." Jack's eyes grew wide again and he said, "yeah, I remember Osprey Flight; I never did understand how you guys were able to pull off some of those stunts you managed in those aircraft," he said, shaking his head. I grinned and said, "lots of practice, and quite a lot of cussing from the technicians responsible for helping me with those aircraft. I remember coming in for a landing after one particularly dumb stunt I pulled and having five of the six rotor blades fall off on power off. Of course, I had totally redesigned the flight systems in each aircraft from scratch and added in some 'special modifications' that allowed for better control, but the airframes were still the Bell-Boeing originals that had been allocated to me for experimentation."

"What sort of 'special modifications' did you make," Raf asked quietly. Miko was staring at Tetra, and probably only paying the minimum of attention to what I was saying. "Well, one of the things that I had been interested in was remotely controlling a full sized aircraft like the V-22 Osprey, so that was one thing; another was a highly developed autopilot system that could handle direct cranial input from suitable pilots," I replied, gauging his reaction. "Cybernetic implants?" Raf asked; I nodded. "All three of us were so configured, and it had unexpected side effects."

Jack looked at me and said, "in other words, there was a sort of link between the three of you." I nodded and said, "Yes, but not just the three humans; the Osprey autopilot units were linked as well, and each acted as a backup device for the primary pilot of the particular aircraft." At that, even Miko responded; "Each of you had a memory backup in the aircraft you flew," she asked in astonishment. "Yes Miko, though it wasn't until much later that I realized the extent of the backups for Bobby and Geronimo," I replied sadly.

Jack moved uncomfortably on the couch as though he had a question, but was embarrassed to ask. "It's okay Jack," I said to him. "I know what's going through your mind and I will answer the question you're not sure how to ask. Part of the mission that we were on was one of exploration; we had the most advanced atmospheric flight hardware available, and NASA wanted it. We all agreed to go, for the good of Humanity, and were given every possible consideration in what was needed to protect our aircraft during the transfer to the orbital assembly station. We even were accepted as full crew members aboard Challenger 2, even though we weren't trained NASA astronauts. The inital departure from orbit was almost anti-climactic compared to the surface launches, but once we got out into space and to the Space Bridge site, things changed."

"Space bridge?" Miko sputtered in shock, "I thought that was something the 'Bots and 'Cons had developed on Cybertron. How did one end up in this sector of space?" "I was never exactly sure, though the data we had was that the hardware was actually built on Earth by humans, using human power sources; where the plans actually came from wasn't known until I managed to get back from Cybertron," I answered. "Challenger 2 had been designed to activate the Space Bridge platform and use it as a transport system; our destination was a world some 2000 light years away, with only a strange alpha-numeric designation that would have little meaning to you."

Raf whispered in awe, "Cybertron." I smiled, "Yes Raf, as it turned out, that was the name of the world we reached; what we didn't know was that our understanding of ground bridge/space bridge technology wasn't sufficiently good enough to realize that there were temporal aspects to bridging, especially over those distances. What we found when we came out the other side was something that I hope no other ship ever has to encounter again; we emerged from the portal at the other end in the middle of a civil war."

I heard the gasp from Miko and Raf, and saw the sympathetic look from Jack, mixed with something I couldn't quite define; I was getting ready to continue when Jack spoke, "Challenger 2 didn't stand a chance against the Decepticons, and you lost a part of yourself when they attacked, right?" "I knew what was going to happen, and couldn't do anything about it; I managed to eject the three drop pods, with myself strapped into Alpha, before the 'Cons were able to destroy the ship. I felt it when Bobby and Geronimo were ripped out of the link, but the only thing I could do was sing our favorite song while in free-fall. Do you want to hear it?"

Miko, Jack and Raf nodded, and I looked up at Optimus. "You remember the words, don't you?" I asked him, to which he gave a solemn nod; Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee all gathered close to the platform as I stood and stepped away from the teens. Tetra joined me without me asking her to, and gestured to Jack for him to join us. He did, though not understanding why. "This is an old song, and I think it will resonate with you in a way that it did with me the first time I heard it," I said before softly starting to sing.

"Fighting solders from the sky

Fearless men who'll jump and die

Men who mean just what they say

The brave men of the Green Beret"

Optimus and the others joined in the singing; even voiceless Bumblebee contributed a unique auditory counterpoint to the song. As we finished, Jack looked at me, tears in his eyes; "they were gone, but not forgotten, just like the sparklings I had the privilege of caring for." "It hurt, badly, but what kept me alive was the knowledge that as long as I lived, they would not be forgotted; I told the Autobots about them, once I managed to learn to communicate with them," Jack and Raf smiled at this revelation, "and they promised me that as long as they lived they would not forget these young men that had been a part of me. There is much more I would like to tell you, but I suspect you've had enough excitement for the last few stellar cycles, and I don't want to overload you."


End file.
